


The only constant

by bluebells



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Pre-Slash, Spoilers for s03e08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:57:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1065488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebells/pseuds/bluebells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While everyone takes a moment to regroup after Henry gives Pan his heart, Neal seizes the distraction of Hook, but the conversation unintentionally turns from Emma and they stumble on the subject they've both been avoiding.</p><p>The story where Hook tries to acknowledge the past but Baelfire is now Neal, Neal is hearing none of it, though he still learns a few things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The only constant

**Author's Note:**

> Because I couldn't find this story (send me recs if you have!) and resolved I just had to write it for myself. This didn't quite pan out to the straightforward threesome resolving silly love triangles, but if I could make a living from writing going to plan I'd be rich by now.
> 
> One thing I couldn't work in was how much I'm enjoying Emma and Regina comfortably trade back and forth acknowledgments of 'our son' on the show. Our son! <3 If I got a foursome working, the squad behind Operation Cobra Rescue would starkly be a chaperoned campaign. Regina and Killian could commiserate on the strangeness of peoples' parents butting into personal business while there are true believers to be saved.
> 
> But that's another story.

And there's something strange about Hook: it's the guilty bow of his head that averts his eyes, the stiff line of his back, the way he squares his jaw like he's bracing himself to swallow a bitter tonic when Neal's around. 

Hook isn't the mysterious, steadfast captain Neal remembers laughing at the helm of the _Jolly Roger_. But what he most remembers about the pirate is Hook's profile fading in the glow of the ship's lanterns after he'd traded Baelfire's life for his own. 

If Hook has trouble meeting his eyes centuries after that betrayal, Neal isn't going to waste energy stopping him. Or maybe he's witnessing the Captain's latent conscience reflecting on the fact he's pursuing Neal's love after stealing his mother, too.

"She won't choose you," Neal says, a small thrill spiking in his gut when Hook's hands freeze in their work reweaving Mary Margaret's vine (and it isn't an easy task single-handed).

Mary Margaret didn't even have to ask, but Hook was probably grateful for anything to keep busy while the Charmings regrouped after the latest shock of Henry plunging his own heart into the chest of their greatest villain. God, Henry. Neal loved that kid but, listening to Emma and Regina, it was clear that Henry's infallible faith extended beyond fairy tales to people who would lie until they were blue in the face with one foot in the grave. How did it make sense that the truest believer was born from one product of true love and the man who wanted nothing to do with magic?

Neal will kill Pan (if Regina or Emma don't beat him to it). But Emma had begged for a moment, just one second for them to make sure they can do this without killing Henry, too. It's a moment that feels like it's burning the air from Neal's lungs, he's almost grateful to Hook for the distraction.

Hook raises his head from his slouch on the low boulder, and there it is again - that roll of his jaw as he stares through the thick wall of jungle and pointedly not at the mother of Neal's child.

"Ah, but if she does," the charm inflects Hook's voice before it twists his mouth into that old smile that Neal stopped believing so long ago, "it'll be fair and square, mate. I trust you'll take your defeat with grace."

"You had one kiss. We had a kid." That thrill is expanding in his chest, a hot flush of pride and protection because he isn't going to lose this. It flinches at the slow way Hook flicks his thumbnail over the tip of his dagger, and Neal doesn't know why. It's a cold tug from between his ribs telling Neal he shouldn't be saying these things, though all true and more than fair in this tug of love and war.

"Aye, you did that." The dagger cleanly removes one of the broken vines before it's pocketed without fanfare. "Young Bae all grown up and a father, too." Hook throws him a smile, lopsided and ill-practiced with real amusement. "I commend your taste in women. I'd like to think I might have had some small part in that, even if we seek the same lass."

"Well, I didn't grow up targeting married women, sorry, man." That earns him a sidelong glare, but really, is Hook surprised? "She's not just a lass."

"They say she's the saviour." Hook doesn't say it with as much cynicism as Neal expects, his tone surprisingly careful. 

"It's not because she's the saviour. It's because she's Emma," Neal says, lowering his voice when Emma glances back at them from the circle of his father, Regina, and Emma's parents. Her hands are raised mid-gesture like she had a point to prove or something to summon, and he knows that frown and the admonishment behind the purse of her mouth, glancing between Neal and Hook.

Neal shakes his head to discharge her concern. No, he and Hook aren't fighting. 

"We're the ones who know Pan, we should be in there." Hook's voice is hushed, his eyes on Emma as she turns back to the circle with a warning look for both of them. 

Neal shakes his head. Maybe before, but not once Pan had tricked his son on Skull Rock. "It's the Dark One and the Evil Queen who'll get my son back. Henry's grandparents are legendary heroes and his mom's a badass. You and me? I trust Emma's lead on this."

"She's yet to fail, and Pan's spared her no challenge. She _will_ get your son back. We will."

Something about the way Hook says 'we' makes Neal look at him, and Hook is the one watching him now. The frankness in his gaze is the closest he's looked to that pirate Neal used to know who would stake his claims and design the plans later, smirking with the ill-placed surety of Lady Luck on his shoulder (and the Lady had not been kind). But there's something else in that look, something important, precious and so potently careful. Neal sucks in a breath, suddenly back on the deck of the _Jolly Roger_ , Hook trembling at his side --

_"This ship can be your home; your family. Just say the word. It's not too late to start over. I can change, Bae -- for you."_

In the end, it wasn't for Bae.

The moment splinters and Hook looks back to the vines in his grip, swallowing visibly. Neal mimics the motion, finding his own throat dry. Unfolding his arms, he straightens and shoves his hands in his back pockets.

"If she wasn't the saviour standing on the shoulders of all the stuff she's done," Neal starts carefully. "You know, if she was just Emma, would you still--"

"Would I still love her?" Hook finishes quietly when Neal can't bring himself to say it, as if the admission would give it power. Hook is worrying the same thread of that weave over and over, frowning in thought. His hesitation answers for him. Neal credits him for not swooping in too quickly to declare his unconditional affections.

"Maybe you _are_ changing," Neal murmurs, and Hook's shoulders sag, the weave dropping to his knees. Neal smiles. "You just needed the right muse, yeah?"

Hook stares at him like Neal just cut off his other hand. "Bae...."

The name is like a cold slap. The heat coiling in his chest surges to his hands, clenching them tight, and he glowers at the captain's confusion. "It's Neal, Captain."

Maybe he should go join that conversation of Operation Cobra Rescue after all. If Regina's volume is anything to go by, an intervention might even be welcome and every second they delayed was another second Pan could be harnessing his full power.

Hook rises to his feet, stepping into Neal's path. "I know this isn't the time, but perhaps there never will be. What happened back then --"

"Forget it." No, there'll never be a time for that conversation. He gave his father a minute, Hook deserved even less.

"I meant it, Bae -- Neal," Hook insists, quiet and urgent, eyes cast on Neal's shoulder. "I would have ripped Pan's shadow from the Hollow myself and sailed us from Neverland if you asked me. I was ready. I just couldn't do it for myself."

"We'll never know, will we?" It's like a punch in the gut and Neal inwardly curls around it. It was so long ago, it shouldn't anger him anymore. But Hook had been the last man he trusted. "You can't even look at me, can you?"

Hook smells like faint sweat and leather, but when he finally sets his jaw and raises his eyes, all Neal can think of are swords and thunderstorms and holding on for dear life to the rigging of that ship. His voice is low and private, hooking into Neal's chest like his namesake. "You want me to look at you?" 

The light is too low for him to see the blue-gray of Hook's eyes but the kohl lines are just as stark as Neal remembers. The challenge is clear: _what now?_ God, Hook really hasn't aged a day. It's a sick reminder of how magic hasn't spared any of them, wandering the shores and streets of so many realms for so long like sad, lost puppets. What a wasted life.

Until now. Until Emma. And when had they stopped talking about her?

"I won't ask, because I don't expect your forgiveness." Hook shakes his head, searching Neal's face. "You grew up handsome, my boy. I can't fault Emma for her taste." He smirks with a gesture between the two of them, but Neal isn't ready to share a compliment with him. 

Neal shakes his head, the first to look away. "I loved Emma when she was just Emma. That's why I'm going to win: I know who she is under everything else."

Hook's smile is slow and beguiling; Neal doesn't hate it. "Ah, but do you know how to love a hero, Neal? Do you know how to stand in the wake of a saviour, of gods and monsters, and not be swept out to sea? She's more than the woman you remember. Can you handle that?"

Neal tries to remember that vindictive glee that fueled him when he started this conversation, but it eludes him now.

"Emma was always a hero," he says, more to himself, but he keeps walking before he can share the afterthought that Hook is right. Although the most important parts of Emma are the same, she's changed -- they all have -- wait, both, not all. Neal doesn't mean to include Hook in that thought. 

But they _have_ changed, and maybe somewhere between he and Hook is the man that Emma deserves: someone who is brave, constant and true to their word; someone who will stay.


End file.
